I don't know if we have a goshdarn American politics thread to go with our British counterpart, but on the off-chance we're missin' out I thought I'd make on here, what with the race for a new POTUS heatin' up 'n' all.

So why don't y'all get cosy and share your thoughts on what promises to be an exciting race.

Why just today I saw that Grizzly Mumma Palin threw her weight behind Donald "Make America Great Again" Trump. Amen! What do you all think of that?

Or maybe you want that Hawkish Clinton woman to take control of the Oval Office? She's got the chops and the guts, for sure, but does her record have too many blots, and has she been paid for by Wall Street?

Or perhaps you want Colonel Bernie Sanders - a pinko with a huge lead in New Hampshire and a strong following among the younger liberal base, but who is also sure to alienate a lot of those on the right of an already divided United States.

That's not forgetting the likes of Cruz, Bush and Carson on the GOP side. Do the Democrats have any other strong candidates besides the 2 listed above?

Looking back at the end of the Obama administration, what are your thoughts? I remember staying up to watch him get elected, and now...?

I'm sure a lot of you are more knowledgeable than me on this stuff. My know-how is pretty much limited to House of Cards and liberal-fantasy-made-real The West Wing. So please, wear your Stetsons and cowboy hat and climb aboard for the primaries, 'cause this is gonna be one hell of a ride. Yeehaw!

Obama did the best he could in a 2 party system scuppered by too much separation of powers and opportunity for political gridlock.

I'll be interested to see how history treats him. He was, perhaps unfairly, seen as a beacon of large-scale change for the better.

The machinations of the Senate/Congress/Lizard people may have made all that un-doable, but he was "supposed" to be the president that rescued America's reputation abroad - a job that seems at odds with an escalation of Bush-ist surveillance and war policy - drone strikes became normalised policy under his rule, for example.

The Republicans have been negligent in targeting (positively) the ethnic minority vote in the last 20 years. Trump has ruined this even further. If he's their candidate this will be his downfall.

If it ends up being Trump vs Sanders, I would personally expect Sanders to win purely based on how effectively Trump has managed to alienate every demographic other than white males. I don't particularly expect Sanders to get the nomination though.

Still a few months ago, I was convinced that Trump wouldn't get the republican nomination, but it appears that received wisdom fails in the face of Trump, at least it is doing so at this stage of the race.

So, at the moment it looks like it will be Trump vs Clinton, which will hand victory to Clinton despite the visceral dislike that Clinton engenders amongst certain sections of the US population (which I can't really work out the root of).

In a way, Trump's nomination is a gift to the democrats in that the anyone but Trump vote is likely to be far larger than the vote that Trump is able to mobilise. It's a shame that the American left may be unable to take advantage of this.

I want Trump to win. He can build his wall around America. No one in and no one out. World gets a win. We could even televise it "The Trumpman Show"

Haha! Yeah part of me wants to see this. But then I would get disheartened at how people just ignore it all and continue relations with the Americans despite the horrific policies that Trump may (or may not actually) put in.

You can bet that someone within British politics will analyse how Trump managed to become so popular and try to translate it over here. Which will be fucking awful, obviously.

Boris would be a good fit, I guess - inexplicably popular despite being a clumsy, foolish prick, a streak of nastiness behind a vaguely charming exterior...

It's hard to imagine Boris as a tough, decisive leader though, he's almost the definition of a bumbling upper class fool. Trump probably manages to appeal to those looking for a 'strong leader' more than Boris could - all those authoritarian idiots who feel it's necessary to have a leader who instinctively tramples all over everyone and conducts international affairs like a pub brawl.

Trump's entertaining and hilarious, but you wouldn't want him leading the free world.

Something from the right looking at the appeal of Trump beyond the crazy rhetoric. Decline of the middle class basically. These people getting poorer, but refusing to consider voting Democrat is interesting.

I think Obama's presidency review will depend on who gets in next. If it's Trump (lol) then everyone will most likely say how good Obama was in comparison. Clinton I think is too tied into Wall St/institution to make a big difference to how America functions. Sanders though, he really seems to be talking about major changes to the US system, and would make an interesting president.